I'm introducing my friend to Xenosaga by watching the cutscenes (being EU and not having a PS2 and 50 hours to play through each one again), and hearing their opinions on characters has changed my mind a little.

Honestly how can anyone dislike KOS-MOS, she was designed to be a baddass!I love Ziggys backstory, and just how tragic he is.I could go on, but honestly this is why i love Xenosaga, and i find it fascinating to come back to time and again. Each character (even voyagers almost clichÃ lust for power) has backstory and reasons for their actions which makes sense. I love that.

I think favourite is a tie between Albedo and Virgil. He is crazy, the perfect 'villain'. For me its the scenes with MOMO and Virgil where he shines. If ep 1 had a more adult character design i felt that the scenes of him essentially raping her would have been almost unwatchable (at best i feel damned uncomfortable watching them). He was crazier than any villain i've seen and always was one up, even to the end, and for once that didn't infuriate me. His backstory was tragically childish. With Virgil i love the scenes where he tears people down, specially that one in ep3. The way he speaks aahhh. Just best characters ever!

Sorry i rambled. I do when it comes to Xenosaga now. I fangasm harder than i do with Kingdom Hearts

Resident Richard and Hermann fan, reporting for duty! Richard would be my absolute favourite, with Hermann and Jr. right behind him. I also like Gaignun, Albedo, Jin, Virgil, and Feb. :3

_________________Bona fama in tenebris proprium splendorem tenet.Resident Richard and Hermann fan! If anyone stumbles across any info or fanart of them, PM me and I will love you forever.Avatar artwork is by stitchedmoon! <3

My top favorite character ended up being Gaignun, after many years of not even noticing him. From the main party though, my favorite is MOMO. She's so strong (and adorable to boot). I also think there are a lot of ways to relate to her. But then there's Jr. in second place, who always steals my heart, too.

But, of course, I'm also guilty of loving pretty much everyone. Mary and Shelley in particular make me want to cry because I need to know more about them, or at least see more fanworks with them.

Meishu wrote:My top favorite character ended up being Gaignun, after many years of not even noticing him. From the main party though, my favorite is MOMO. She's so strong (and adorable to boot). I also think there are a lot of ways to relate to her. But then there's Jr. in second place, who always steals my heart, too.

But, of course, I'm also guilty of loving pretty much everyone. Mary and Shelley in particular make me want to cry because I need to know more about them, or at least see more fanworks with them.

MOMO is definitely one of my favorites as well. She's insanely adorable, and I found her to be the most interesting party member in the first two games. I'm just disappointed they didn't give her very many lines in Episode III.

Well, won't be supprise that from main party it would be chaos and MOMO, from NPC Nephilim, but as for Xenosaga it's hard for me not to like characters, just those 3 move a little more in my like list then rest. Ziggy is amazing, mostly his pied piper story, Shion is nice if she just don't throw around "twilight" lines... Oh well I could write about all characters like this, let's not waste internet space on it XD.

_________________In my long-forgotten, cloistered sleepSomeone kissed me, whispering words of loveIs it just the longing of my heart?Such a moment of such peace...

Haha! I made a backup of my original response to this question. Wait... what? No, I didn't.Crap, well then... I'll keep it short 'cause I'm too lazy right now to go into much detail. xD

!Obvious MASSIVE SPOILERS are included!

Favorite of the playable cast:Jr./Rubedo; funnily enough, I didn't care for him at first. in XSI he just seemed like this "I'm so cool and badass, I've got guns and I swear a lot" kind of character and my first impression of Jr. was "meh, whatever, kiddo".Enter Jr. XSII-style; wowz, his development and the overall focus on his background story in XSII made me like him so much! I also like the sound of his real name, it's pretty cool. And Albedo always says his name in such a catchy way, i.e. Ruh-bee-dooh! xDIt also helps that I like his character design in XSII & XSIII much more. He looks a bit older and doesn't have those weird out-of-proportion "3D anime" cheeks from XSI anymore (I generally dislike the artstyle from XSI, it just seems like a failed attempt at bringing anime to 3D).

<edit>

Adding an old post of mine with more thoughts on Jr.;

Spoiler:

Likes:

- His caring side; he always wants to help out or protect those he cares for, and he can be very nice if he wants to. Basically, he's someone who acts all tough, but is still a nice guy regardless.

- His XSII & III look; it makes him look like a teenager rather than a 12-year-old.

- His voice; Brianne Siddall really brings his chararcter to life.

Dislikes:

- He tends to rush into battle without thinking things over.

- He's not exactly a great connoisseur of wit. "You bastard!" is his most common reply to people who piss him off. And "You damn bitch!" is the lamest comeback ever (Orgulla wins the trash talk contest). xD

- His XSI look; his out-of-proportion facial features in XSI makes me think of a froggie. And I don't like the outfit either; green pants with orange stripes...? Never liked those.

Other favorites from the playable cast:Jin; like Jr., Jin grew on me as the story progressed. However, unlike Jr., I already liked Jin in XSII and just liked him even more in XSIII (the more obvious similarity to Citan in XSIII really helps!). His part of the ending probably touched me the most. *sniff*Why I ranked Jr. higher then? Well...XSI Jr. [meh (0 points)] <=> XSI Jin [nothing (0 points)]XSII Jr. [LIKE! (2 points)] <=> XSII Jin [like (1 point)]XSIII Jr. [LIKE! (2 points)] <=> XSIII Jin [LIKE! (2 points)]Now you do the math. xP

Ziggy; ah... the cool, calm and collected cyborg with a "small" anger issue when confronted by his nemesis. I really like his background story and I just like the guy's personality in general.

chaos; he's a backwards example. I really liked him at first and sort of lost interest in him as the story progressed. He's a likeable character, but he doesn't show much emotion other than always being "mr. nice guy". I guess I was hoping to see more diverse emotions from him.But then again, I just don't care for his background story, his true nature and all that. That part of his character is something which, to be perfectly honest, I find quite boring. Even so, I still like him for being the positive, kind-to-all character that he is.PS: he's incredibly schmexy. ;3

<edit>

Adding an old post of mine with more thoughts on chaos;

Spoiler:

Likes:

- A nice, friendly guy who tries to help out/cheer up others whenever he can.

- There's also a small detail I like about his hairstyle: he has this little poof of hair standing upwards in the middle, it adds kind of a special touch to his hair.They removed it in XSII (boo!) but added it back in XSIII (yay!). x]

Dislikes:

- He's... how shall I say this... "overexaggerated nice". I mean, it's nice to be nice, but I wanted to see a different side of him too. A character who, for the most part, only shows one kind of emotion won't hold my interest forever. And that's why I don't like the whole "Christlike holy saint kind of guy" approach they gave him.He does show sadness in the XSIII ending, but that moment passed very quickly (obviously because the situation didn't allow for a longer moment of grief). It wasn't quite what I was waiting for.

- Both of his English voices. His XSI voice is way too happy, and his XSII & III voice is too deep for my liking (it doesn't add much emotion to his reactions, with the exception of "KOOOS-MOOOS!!!").Even though Japanese voice overs don't really appeal to me, I must say the tone of chaos' Japanese XSIII voice is just what I'd expect him to sound like. I would have liked him to have a similar English voice, I just think it sounds fitting for chaos.

Closing comment on the playable cast:

@xenolion wrote:Count me as one who dislikes kossie with a passion. I have my reasons.

Count me as another one who doesn't care much for KOS-MOS either. I wouldn't say I downright hate her, but she's definitely my least favorite of the playable cast and I personally find her terribly overrated.[My reasons? She's like Jr. without the personality. Just all "sexy badass butt-kicking robot babe" and nothing else. Just like with chaos, her true nature doesn't interest me (i.e. I find that part of her character even more boring). And of course, I am 100% immune to her sex appeal. So then, what's left? Nothing, because she has no personality. The only time when she does is when she's Mary, and I don't care for Mary either (as I said, I think she's a boring character).]

So you'll have to excuse me if I'm slightly annoyed everytime KOS-MOS gets a new piece of merchandise and all the other characters are ignored. -.-

Note that I only explained my "dislike" for KOS-MOS because everyone is asking xenolion her reasons for not liking KOS-MOS, so I figured I'd mention mine in advance. ;p

Anyway, back to the favorites now!

Favorites of the non-playable cast:Yuriev; wicked evil "magnificent bastard" who dethroned Albedo as my favorite XS villain. As soon as Yuriev started bodysurfing and spouting evil one-liners, he became my favorite XS villain."I'm not going to die... not now, not ever."

Well said, Yuriev. Well, said. Dialogue worthy for my #1 villain! And he's got even more wicked evil moments in XSIII (hugging Mary as Gaignun only to reveal himself as Yuriev while shooting her, anyone?). The guy is an evil genius! But not enough to outsmart the good guys, of course.

Albedo; do I really need to explain this? It's Albedo, what more do you need to know!(See, this is the part where I'm being lazy)

Margulis; worthy rival to Jin who I felt somewhat sorry for in the end. Everything he believed in, gone! Tragic end to a tragic villain. Also, let's not forget his unintentionally funny outbursts of "UUUZUUUUUKIIIIIII!!!!!!!!" 8D

Cherenkov; another tragic villain. The development he gets during the Cathedral Ship scenes is awesome. Shame he was never mentioned again, even though his final scene gave me the impression he would at least be brought up again for the message he gave Shion.

And finally, the award for my favorite "very-minor-character" goes to:Orgulla; I only have one thing to say: what a waste of potential. A character who shows as much intriguing potential as she does solely during a boss fight shouldn't have been discarded so easily. For whatever reason, the game doesn't even bother confirming whether or not she died (same for Richard and Hermann, but they showed up again in XSIII). Then again, I guess she was working for the Patriarch and only the Patriarch, so with him gone after XSII, I guess there wasn't much they could have done with Orgulla afterwards.

I personally developed a hatred for KOS-MOS recently after trying to fish through a billion Xenosaga fanart pics, 80% of which were KOS-MOS, just to find some pictures of Jr.

That being said, I think looking back on it all that my favourite character would have to be Albedo, Jr. and Allen. Allen resembles every man that I have ever been attracted to and after writing a few more stories in which I have played the villain, I've found that I am emulating Albedo's particular spice of psychosis. Jr. simply for the fact that he's the man that if I were a man, I wouldn't mind being.

Last edited by 78 on Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:22 am; edited 1 time in total

Picking a favorite is actually quite hard, being someone who had little qualms with the party, which is interesting since in other RPGs there's always at least one party member I hate. I didn't get that with Xenosaga.

I remember back when I first played Episode 1, KOS-MOS made the biggest impression on me compared to everyone else. It died down though, and it didn't take long to figure out that she isn't my 'favorite' character. Recently, as I've played the games I found myself putting MOMO in the party constantly (not so much in the first game though), and she is usually my on-screen character. Its really hard to say why I like MOMO other than saying "I just do."

As for everyone else, I found reason to like them, at least to some degree. Though I can't close this post without mentioning Miyuki. Once upon a time, EVERYONE knew I was a Miyuki fan. Those days are long gone though, (and I miss those days). Don't get me wrong, I am still a Miyuki fan! Remember it!

*waves around*Playable character favorite is probably Jin Uzuki or chaos. I love Pellegri something ridiculous, and Margulis of course/everyone in Ormus, and I do really like Shion. Also Allen. Dorks win.Oh, Gaignun is pretty cool too. MOMO became cool when she started popping laser arrows. XD

I actually don't particularly care for KOS-MOS all that much either. Girl's got a great design...but I have my reasons too.

first that comes to mind with episode I and III is Miyuki. she's a good mix of smart, clumsy, funny, and maybe otaku. lucky bastard that Togashi.

Ormus knows how to pick their characters. loved all the scenes with Pellegri, and Margulis. Speaking of Margulis, he's the first character that caught me eye way back before episode I was ever released. at the time of the first ever teaser released i remember seeing a scene (that later on ended up being removed) with Margulis walking, flames in the background, a sword in hand. and another man i think was Jin. that alone settled it, i had to buy this game when it comes out i said to self.